'Walked for over 45 kilometres, saw many dead bodies along the route'; Indians who returned from US share shocking experiences

NEW DELHI: The flight carrying 104 Indian immigrants from America landed in Amritsar yesterday. Most of them had fallen victim to job scams. One of them was Harvinder Singh from Tahli village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district. An agent had deceived him by promising a work visa and took Rs 42 lakh from him.

"The agent told us at the last moment that the visa had not been issued. From Delhi, they sent us on flights to Qatar and then to Brazil. The agent assured us that from Peru in Brazil, we would be put on a flight to America. However, they did not provide us with tickets for that journey. Instead, we were taken in a taxi to Colombia and then to the Panama border. There, the agent said we would be transported by ship. We waited for two days, but no ship arrived.

We were forced to walk along a mountainous path. While walking through the Panama jungle, one of our fellow travellers died. From there, they sent us toward the Mexico border in a small boat. It was a four-hour-long sea journey. During this time, the boat capsized, and another person travelling with us drowned. We survived on very little rice," Harvinder Singh recounted his terrifying experience.

Sukhpal Singh from Darapur village had a similar ordeal. "We travelled in a boat for 15 hours across the sea. Then we walked 40-45 kilometres through valleys surrounded by mountains. If someone got injured on the way, there was no option but to leave them behind to die. We saw many dead bodies along the route. Later, when we tried to cross the US border, we were placed in a dark cell. We couldn't even see the sun. There were thousands of families and children like us. I appeal to people not to attempt to go abroad through illegal means," said Sukhpal Singh.